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The Eichmann Abduction Avner Avraham

Adolf Eichmann, an Austrian like Hitler and the majority of the 6 main camp commodants who ran the killing centers based in Poland, was a senior SS Officer. He worked with Reinhard Heydrich to plan the infamous Wannsee Conference in January, 1942 which formalized the Reich’s plan to kill all the Jews in Europe and occupied German territories. He went to Hungary and worked to ship nearly half a million Hungarian Jews to their death in 1944 near the end of the war.

After the War Eichmann fled Europe to Buenos Aires. He eventually changed his name, years later after living openly, and ended up working in a Mercedes plant in Argentina.

Eichmann was discovered, not through brilliant detective work, but due to the efforts of a Jewish man in Argentina whose daughter was dating a son of Eichmann. He alerted a German prosecutor Fritz Bauer who had to push the Mossad to investigate. Initial errors on the Mossad’s part led to further efforts by Bauer which finally led to a plan to capture Eichmann. Bauer’s role were left out of Mossad Director Isser Harel’s famous book The House On Garibaldi Street.

Avner Avraham, as a serving Mossad Officer, had access to the Mossad Eichmann file. In the interview he reveals new details such as how close the Mossad was to also capturing infamous Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele when they captured Eichmann.

Mengele was responsible for numerous inhuman acts and experiments on prisoners, especially twins, as a prison Doctor at Auschwitz. The 1978 film “The Boys From Brazil” was loosely based on his life. Mengele was actually alive when the film came out. His own son Rolf visited him in Brazil in the 1970s. However, when Eichmann was abducted in 1960 Mengele was still living in Argentina and reportedly in occasional contact with Eichmann.